The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai by Han Bangqing is without question the founding masterpiece of Shanghainese literature, while the eponymous theatrical work graded as the 2.0 version is an experimental multimedia performance aiming to reconstruct the masterpiece with a completely new approach. The actors and staff, with four cameras and a big silver screen, shoot a womens cinema on the stage and present the final version on the screen at the same time. Through a real-time editing system, the audience sees not only the cinema, but also the process of making everything in front of their eyes. The experience is neither theatre nor movie but somewhere in-between. With the nosy lens and the seamless transition of the scenes, the woman in todays Shanghai establishes soul link with the one in Qing Dynasty in similar situation, implying the theme of self-inquiry among women in different times. Wang ChongWang Chong is an avant-garde theatre director and the founder of Beijing-based performance group Théatre du Rêve Expérimental. He holds two Bachelors Degrees in Law and Economics of Peking University, and a Masters Degree in Drama of the University of Hawaii. His works, including the China mainland premieres of Hamletmachine and Crave, have toured in China, U.S., Canada, U.K., France and Japan. His e-Station is nominated for the best production at Mont-Laurier International Theatre Festival. He and his team are dedicated to theatrical expression of both classical and modern texts through experimental ways, such as physical theatre, multimedia and image theatre.
Drama
2012
